A Doomier Harbinger of Doom - Fiddles Update Concept
Fiddlesticks is one of the cooler-looking of the old guard of League's roster, in my opinion. And since his latest splash art update and new creepypasta Lore went live, I've always felt like it's a bit of a shame that his kit is so clunky and seemingly cobbled together. He's not so broken that I feel like this update is necessary or that he can't find his place on the fringes of the meta from time to time, but he could definitely use the love! With that in mind, here are my ideas:
Passive - Murderous Intent
Watching: Crows will periodically perch on walls or in brush around the map. Enemy champions who get too near to a crow will send it circling into the air and cawing. After one second, if the bird is still alive, it will grant Fiddlesticks vision of the area for X seconds and vision of all enemies within it for Y seconds. Additionally, enemies granting vision from this effect immediately grant Fiddlesticks his full Waiting movement speed bonus towards them for the duration of the effect. (Birds have health comparable to Zyra plants -- Two BAs or a moderate amount of damage)
Waiting: Standing still or channeling abilities for at least 1.5 seconds grants Fiddlesticks X bonus movement speed, scaling up to X+ over 3 seconds. Being immobilized will not trigger Waiting, and will reset the timer.
After five seconds of not moving, Fiddlesticks will take on the appearance of an inanimate scarecrow. Pressing the Stop command will freeze him in the middle of any non-combat animation.
Fiddles has his fans as support or in the mid lane, but he's always struck me as being built for the jungle both mechanically and thematically. When you leave your lane and enter the darkened no-man's-land, you've entered his domain. This takes his already pretty entertaining 'act like a scarecrow and get rewarded' passive and adds a layer of additional utility. Nothing will spread more fear than not noticing a crow in time and knowing that there's a very real chance the wicker man is now bolting towards you at full speed!
Q - The Reaping
- Passive: The first basic attack or Reaping against an enemy with impaired vision will cause them to flee for X seconds.
- Active: Fiddlesticks swings his sickle, creating a ghostly copy of it that tears through a large area, dealing Y damage and healing him for Z% of the damage dealt. Healing is capped against minions. (Area comparable to the initial swing of Sejuani's W)
As you'll see in a second, I wanted to pull some of Fiddles' drain-tanking away from one single ability, since that ability tends to make him hell to duel if he's doing even vaguely well. He should definitely be hard to put down if he successfully drains, but not to the level he's currently got. This gives him some in-fight staying power while also finally putting a damage ability on Q (Seriously, this is basically a given on everyone except him, Trist, and Nunu. It's weird) and giving him a secondary sustain option in the jungle.
W - Drain
- Fiddlesticks corrupts the area around himself and a target enemy and channels for up to five seconds. While channeling, Fiddlesticks deals X magic damage and slows each second and heals himself for a percentage of the damage done. If primary target of Drain dies before the channel completes, reduce its cooldown by its remaining duration.
"You crossed my field, and all that grows here is mine."
Drain as you knew it, but now made for teamfights and with added counterplay that's not 'run for the hills because that tether is LONG'. Maybe this isn't the right direction to take things, but I'm not a huge fan of the current magical-leash effect (mechanically or visually), and this seems a bit more in keeping with Fiddles' theme of rotting fields and draining his surroundings.
E - Ravenous Flock
- Fiddles sends a torrent of screaming crows that fly through the targeted zone for 3 seconds, dealing X magic damage to all enemies hit and an additional Y damage per second for as long as they remain in the crows. Enemy champions are Near-Sighted for Z seconds. (zone size comparable to Thresh's Flay. Birds continually fly in from one end and out the other)
I know, I know, it seems like heresy to get rid of the bouncing bird, but not only is this ability more in theme with his lore and his appearance in that ancient 'Twist of Fate' animation, but it polishes off the randomness of Dark Wind while keeping something comparable to but not nearly as infuriating as a potentially multi-application silence in his kit.
R - Crowstorm
- After channeling for 3 seconds, Fiddlesticks blinks to the target location with a murder of crows flying wildly around him for 5 seconds, dealing magic damage to nearby enemies each second. The channel may be ended early after a minimum of 1.5 seconds.
This thing is pretty core to Fiddlesticks. It's what people remember about him, and it's the reason Surprise Party Fiddles exists in the first place. I added in the option to extend the channel time to potentially make use of the upper limits of his tweaked passive, but otherwise it doesn't really need to be touched. I'd love to see some added effects for some of his skins during its effects, though. Mariachi music and gunshots for Bandito, cannonfire and shanties for Pirate, that sort of thing...
There's also one other big change I would make to Fiddles, and it's probably a pretty contentious one: Make him Melee.
Along with removing the need to explain why his sickle can sling strange hoops of spectral energy, I think it fits better with his mostly-close-range kit even BEFORE I fiddled with it. His autos have never been a significant focus of his kit, after all. I think it would clean up his interactions immensely if right-clicking (or attack-moving) on people got him running up TO them, where he gets surer hits on his Q and extra drain-zone on his W, as well as keeps people inside of an ongoing Crowstorm.
So, once again, not saying that Fiddles strictly needs an update, nor even that this is how it would have to be done if he got one, but I think it's how I'd consider approaching it from the get-go. Lemme know what you think!
